Insufferable Music Critic by Chris Middleman

 

 

I’m not a terrible son
because I don’t answer the phone
at the pinched moments she calls 

 

and I feel even less guilt
when i hear that leitmotif
play out in the voicemail 

 

Resplendent with pangs of Catholic guilt
and smoldering Philadelphian resignation 

 

This composition for sad trombone
is too familiar to be affecting;
it comes off instead like a slide whistle